The community spirit in Guyana was very much alive in the past and as such members of communities could have been seen regularly carrying out clean up campaigns or doing minor repairs to bridges and roads etc. But as the saying goes changes are inevitable, whether it is for the good or the bad, and so with time the community spirit waned and people shied away from doing community work and instead depended on government or its agencies to solve all the problems in their communities. This is indeed a most unfortunate development.
Nevertheless, all is not lost and several communities under the concept of Community Policing are helping to combat the troubling crime problem facing our society. In fact, experience here and beyond has shown that the community policing approach has been very effective in the fight against crime once it is properly organised and managed.
According to a Ghana Times report: “The Neighbourhood Watch Scheme is a simple, practical, community friendly crime prevention and personal safety initiative that the Ghana Police service had adopted more than two decades now. The Ghana Police Service introduced the scheme in the late 1980’s after a Police Officer who attended a course in the USA saw its effectiveness in crime prevention. Reports and testimonies from serving and retired Police officers and members of the public attest to the immense benefits the Police, businesses, schools and communities derived from it. The scheme served as a rallying point for the Police and the community in tackling crime problems. It also fostered the spirit of good neighbourliness and revived the communal spirit among both the old and young.”
The Hereford Times of July 24 2001 reported: “THE rekindling of community spirit could help halt a rise in vandalism, grafitti and anti-social behaviour, the West Watford Community Forum heard last week.
Residents expressed dismay at the sudden surge in petty crime thought to be committed by local teenagers, at the meeting at Westfield Community School, Tolpits Lane, on Thursday, July 19.
Westfield School, Holywell Community Centre and West Watford Information Shop have all been targeted by vandals in the past three months.
Community sergeant for West Watford Eddie Matthews urged residents to aid police by contacting a new free and confidential information line on 0800 358 4378.
He said: “It’s a confidential line and it does help us deal with the culprits if not in the short term then in the long term. If we haven’t got the evidence, we can’t deal with it.
“We want to police the community but the community has got to help itself as well. It’s a partnership – we can’t do it by ourselves and we don’t expect the community to do it by themselves.”
These two examples were cited because it illustrates that the community approach to crime fighting is effective whether it is applied in a developed or developing society as the former is in a developing African society while the latter is in developed UK in Europe.
In light of this the call by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, during his interactive meeting with the Lodge Community Policing Group, for people to work collaboratively with the police stressing that community members have a duty under the Constitution, in the same way that they have rights, to work hand-in-hand with law enforcement to tackle these issues
Sir Robert Peel, acknowledged as the father of modern policing in the world, stated more than a century ago that the Police are the Public and the Public are the Police. This axiom underscores the fundamental principle that the fight against crime in our society requires a kind of symbiotic relationship between the people in various communities and the Police. A relationship that is characterized by sincere and genuine efforts on the part of the Police to exhibit attitudes and behaviours that recognise the indispensable role well meaning and law abiding members of the community can play in frustrating the efforts of criminals. It also involves identifying strategies that can make our communities safer.
Criminologists, social scientists and law enforcement administrators had long recognised this principle. The concept of Community Policing as an alternate Policing philosophy that gets the Police and the public working together to solve crime problems, address community safety challenges and adopt measures to improve on the quality of life of members of the community thus became one of the principal tenets of democratic policing.
Community policing has therefore become a popular Policing and crime prevention strategy implemented by many Police organizations all over the world.